Quilting in Africa.

When I lived in South Africa, in the '80's and '90's, I had a business called Iris Creations. The reason for the name was that both my Mother and I have Iris as one of our names. I dyed and painted the fabric and my Mom did the sewing. Then one day I realised that maybe I should know a bit about quilting seeing as I dyed fabric for all the quilters in South Africa, and some people internationally too. :-D

I hunted about and found a lady who taught quilting from her home. She did a 5 day intensive course with a small discount in price if I could encourage another person to join me. Well I'd already decided that my Mom and I were going to do this together so that was a nice little bonus. :-)

We lived in a little farming community about 80 km from Pretoria, the Capital City of South Africa. The course was in Pretoria, so that meant we had to drive in every day. This wasn't a hardship at all...my Mom and I were so excited about this, that we chatted and chatted and the trip passed in no time at all...
The course taught us 9 different types of patch working..we sewed a block of each type and then put them together to make a lap quilt.

The Patchwork that I found the most fun and of course the easiest was the Nine Patch. So I set about practicing it till, I think, I was fairly proficient. I then started to put together Nine Patch Kits, complete with instructions, selling them at the quilt shows and to quilt guilds around the country. This expanded into people asking me to design blocks with a specific theme, which I'd do..then I'd dye fabric for that theme, paint the blocks, cut all the pieces required and package them with batting, backing and instructions. It was fun but very time consuming.

One day my phone rang and to my surprise the caller was a lady from South Africa's Leading Needlework and Craft Magazine, Talking Threads! She'd heard of my quilts and wanted to do a story on them. I was flabbergasted and enormously flattered all at the same time ;-)
We got together and did the interview. I was asked to write up a tutorial on how I made these quilts. I didn't have a camera in those days, so I had to manipulate the whole thing through the computer. They loved it. I  was so excited! Then I didn't hear anything for a while. I was immersed in my work and so time flew by. Several months later they called me and ordered a whole lot of the Nine Patch Quilt kits. I asked what was happening and they said that they wanted stock for when the edition # 20 came out. I got all excited all over again, and was even more busy trying to deal with my regular orders and all this as well.

What they hadn't told me was.......................... My quilt was going to be on the front cover of the Magazine!!!  I was totally blown away when I found out!

The front Cover.

 Inside the Talking Threads was a full three pages showing my quilt and how to make it. Because the Talking Threads had stocked up with the kits..people could get them at a reduced price, a great bargain for beginner quilters.

My Quilt.

 The fabric had all been dyed by me and then stenciled on top of the dye. I had designed 4 different quilts so that people would have a choice.

Other Choices.

All in all it was a great time for me. My business was doing well and I was one happy lady. ;-D

Recently I tried to find out if Talking Threads was still pumping out their fantastic mag, but I couldn't find anything online. Not that, that means anything really..but I did wonder.

Still sailing....this is a scheduled post..just to keep you all on your toes.. lol

My African Quilt!

Long long time ago, back in the day when ...oh sorry wrong story..ahem..*sheepish grin*
In 2001 I dyed some fabric. Then I stenciled some designs onto it. I painted 6 panels with what was almost African rock drawings..but a bit more... today ..is the only word I can think of. It was a lot of fun. I showed the pieces to my Mom and we discussed how it should go together. Then I put it aside...various things were happening in my life, my son got married, I went on to a sailing school on a Coastal Skipper's course for a month to gain experience on large keel boats. Up till then I'd only sailed small dinghy racers. Suddenly I was offered a trip, from Durban, South Africa to Chesapeake Bay near Washington DC. All I had to do was help sail the boat there. I jumped at it and my life turned upside down...what to do with the house, the car etc..I solved it all by handing the keys to my son and said.."here you go my boy..how about taking over..not sure when I'll be back..maybe never....I might like it out there you know"....ha ha he he he ..

Anyway I digress, I'm always doing that..:-p...here are some photo's of the quilt and then some close-ups of different sections.

My African quilt in our Aft Cabin.

One of the hand painted blocks.

Another of the blocks.

Still another.. :-)

Notice the tiny loin on the gold square?

This is the lion...

 There are other animals in the other corners.

A Hippo yawning...

An Elephant.

A Giraffe drinking..

A Warthog mom and her babies.

 These are stencils of different homes built around Africa. Some of them are beautifully painted with designs in bright colours.

This is an overall view of the quilt...taken on the boat outside.

An overall view.

This quilt has been everywhere with me..usually it was stuffed into my back pack and dragged around from boat to boat..whichever one I happened to be working on at the time :-) I also often threw it into the washing machine along with other stuff...no protection and not on the delicate cycle...I decided that it would be a good test to see if my colours lasted..and I'm very happy with the result....:-D
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No, I'm not back in circulation yet :-D I wrote this whilst still in Panama and the scheduled it to post today..Just to keep you all on your toes. :-)

Inspiration from Africa.

Hi,
I make blocks for people who sew. Sounds weird doesn't it. ha ha.. Blocks you think, what type of blocks?..can't be wood blocks....:-)  Well they are squares of fabric, 7.5 inches square and 9.5 inches square.. "Oh squares! well why didn't you say so in the first place?"...
"I know, I used to say that..but I've learned that in sewing circles, they are called blocks".
"Ahhhh okay..and so?"

At first I hand dyed the fabric and then hand painted sea creatures on them. Then someone said "Not everyone likes sea creatures you know"...hmmmmm Okay, I put on my thinking cap and eventually it stopped sleeping, struggled awake and gave me an idea. Let me try and paint African Wild animals and see what reaction I get to those. So far the reaction has been fairly good, and of course, I'm hoping for it to improve. haha.

Have a look at these then: The left hand column is from the range called "Late Afternoon". And the right hand column is from the range called  "After the Rains".

Buffalo.

Buffalo...

Elephant..there is one more.. :-)

Elephant.

Giraffe...

Giraffe...

leopard...looking at you. :-)

Leopard...

Lioness and cub...

The cub needs to have her nap.....shhhhh

Rhino...

   

Hey Dude, you want some grass?

The wild life have had a hard time with poachers in the last decade...but there are some dedicated people out there trying to keep them safe. In South Africa, there is one guy, Ian Merrifield and his wife running a charitable organisation called Daktari Wildlife Orphanage and a Bush School where he teaches children the importance of the wild animals to their culture and way of life. This is very important work.

Now why did I mention that? One of my brothers used to be a Game Ranger in Zimbabwe. He was always watching for poachers. The are the bane of the Rangers existence. My son and I used to go and stay with him. I felt so privileged you know, to be "behind the scenes" as it were...But in all the times I did stay with Kevin, I never saw a cat in the wild...not because there were none, but because they hid away..:-p not fair...I'm just going to have to go back to have a good look one of these days :-D

 :-D That's the range at the moment....If there are any requests I shall seriously consider them....leave a comment :-)
Have a great day!